David Marcus the former head of Facebook crypto operations has launched his own Bitcoin firm Lightspark to expand Bitcoin’s use cases
Facebook David Marcus Launches New Bitcoin Payment Company
According to a story from TechCrunch on Thursday, Marcus and a few ex-Meta crypto team members have formed a new startup.
Marcus was in charge of Facebook’s crypto and financial services activities until November last year, when he stepped down due to the failure of Diem, which was eventually sold to Silvergate in January this year. He was previously the president of PayPal.
Marcus is now working on a backend infrastructure for enterprises, developers, and merchants who want to transact on the Lightning network through his new company, Lightspark. Lightning is a system developed on top of Bitcoin that enables smaller and less expensive transactions.
Lightspark, the new enterprise, would be based on the Bitcoin Lightning Network. It will purportedly aim to improve and expand Bitcoin’s capabilities and utility.
Bitcoin’s Lightning Network, for example, allows for cheaper and faster transactions. According to a recent survey, the number of Lightning payments increased in the last year, while the value of payments quadrupled.
Bitcoin Firm Backed By A16z Crypto, Paradigm
A16z Crypto and Paradigm have invested in Lightspark in its first round of funding. Felix Capital, Ribbit Capital, Matrix Partners, and Coatue also participated in the round.
Marcus isn’t the first former Meta crypto executive to strike out on his own following the failure of the Diem project. Mo Shaikh and Avery Ching raised a $200 million strategic round for Aptos, a new Layer-1 blockchain, in March, sponsored by Andreessen Horowitz.
Commenting on the deal, a16z investor Sriram Krishan remarked:
“We’ve always been big believers in Bitcoin’s unique history and role in crypto. We’ve been looking to back a team to build on top of Bitcoin and believe David Marcus and the Lightspark team that he’s assembled can bring exciting new technological innovation to Bitcoin and the Lightning Network.”
